It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

With the buzz that surrounds the festive season, it’s no surprise that Christmas is the most profitable time of year for many businesses - and don’t they know it.

Many big brands have already launched their Christmas marketing campaigns and released snippets of their Christmas adverts! In fact, more brands than ever seem to be taking advantage of the jolly season, with the likes of Lego releasing their first ever global Christmas advert this November. However, many of the adverts released so far have been ‘disappointing’ in the eyes of some, with suggestions that the ads focus too much on pushing products and not on the general festive cheer.

Nonetheless, let's take a look at some of this years contenders:

Amazon

For the second year running, Amazon’s Christmas advert features singing Amazon boxes. This year the boxes spread Christmas cheer to nurses, delivery drivers and busy families, as they join in a chorus of ‘Can You Feel It’, a feel-good 1980s hit by the Jackson Five.

The return of Amazon's ‘singing box’ idea most likely stemmed from the success of last years campaign, which was crowned as the ad most likely to convert a viewer to a buyer.

This year’s campaign is slightly weaker, however, last years ‘Give a little bit’ theme (song sang by the boxes, written by Supertramp) is perhaps more Christmassy than this years song of choice.

Lidl

This year, Lidl’s Christmas advert encourages customers to ‘Make Christmas a Lidl special’ by upgrading their festive celebrations. The campaign plays off the idea that Christmas is a time to go the extra mile when treating friends and family, and demonstrates that instead of buying a humongous (too-big-for-the-living-room) Christmas tree, you should invest in their mouth-watering festive products.

As a big fan of puns we do enjoy the Lidl campaign, but it perhaps doesn’t spread the festive cheer as much as one would like.

Aldi

Kevin the Carrot, who was brought to life by Aldi two years ago, returns for their first 2018 Christmas advert. In the beginning of the advert, Kevin is driving a truck suspiciously similar to the famous Coca-Cola Christmas truck. However, an avalanche causes Kevin to swerve and the end scene shows the truck ‘cliff-hanging’ with the hashtag #SaveKevin. Similar to Amazon, Kevin probably returned due to the massive popularity and success of the character in previous years.

Mascots are often used to encapsulate brand values and make marketing campaigns distinctive and memorable, and Aldi certainly seem to have pulled this off. Lets hope Kevin is ok!

Argos

Similar to Aldi, Argos have gone down the mascot route for their Christmas campaign this year, however, the mascot they have chosen is not quite as friendly. The ‘Christmas fool’, a small gremlin-like creature, tries to ruin a family's last minute Christmas preparations by causing all sorts of chaos. However, the fool’s mischief is brought to an end by Argos, who offer speedy deliveries and in-store collections to save the day.

This ad was made to reflect the brands recent change of strategy, during which it unveiled the new strapline ‘You’re good to go’. The new strapline reflects the brand’s ability to keep up with customers’ faced-paced lives. The ‘Christmas fool’ takes a different tone compared to that usually seen in Christmas ads, which often strike a more jolly ‘Christmas is completely wonderful’ tone rather than a ‘Christmas is chaos!’ tone.

Perhaps this makes the ad stand out, but many customers have grown to love the more festive feel.

John Lewis

Finally, expected to be released any day now, John Lewis’ Christmas adverts have become synonymous with the beginning of Christmas. You would hope so considering the brand spends around £1m during advert production! However, their last campaign, featuring Moz the Monster, was not ‘Christmassy’ enough and fell flat according some.

None-the-less, the brand are often recalled as one of the best in the advert biz and we eagerly await this years contender!